Czech anthropologist Zdenka moves with her husband and three sons to Svalbard, Norway, to study the impact of globalisation on the people living in the polar regions. In Longyearbyen, the northernmost settlement in the world, she comes across a heterogeneous community struggling with social changes and the impacts of climate change.
Attracted by the Norwegian government’s promise that anyone is free to come and settle in Svalbard without needing a visa, provided they have a job and somewhere to live, people from 52 countries now live in Longyearbyen. But when talking to the immigrants, Zdenka realises that the reality here is a long way from any utopia of an egalitarian international community. »I still feel like an outsider« is a phrase she hears time and again. At the same time, the Norwegian natives increasingly complain that they no longer feel at home. But the change in mood in the city is not just down to the tensions between locals and immigrants; the melting of the surrounding snow mountains and avalanches are also threatening the peace of Longyearbyen. #»This is no place to stay«# is the sober verdict of a local artist, and Zdenka too is forced to realise that her new home is not the one she had hoped for.